Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
May 15, 2014

The aging Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is in need of approximately $3 million in specialized equipment to operate at optimum levels.
But officials are insisting the lack of equipment has not impacted on the health care provided to patients.
Director of engineering services Paula Agbowu said today, after receiving a donation from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL), the needs of the Government-owned institution were many and “spread across the entire plant”.
Last year the Government slashed about $35 million from the hospital’s budget.
Asked what it would cost to give the QEH all it needed, Agbowu told Barbados TODAY: “I don’t know the exact figure, but I would estimate that it would take, over the next couple of years, $3 million to adequately supply the plant with equipment.”
“We have needs within our laboratory for additional blood fridges; we also have needs for microscopes and also for one or two specialized pieces of equipment within our laboratory. Within the blood-collecting unit, for example, we have needs for centrifuges. In the theatres we have need for additional anaesthetic machines and autoclaves and so on. But we also have needs for our [Intensive Care Unit] generally for cardiac type monitors, transport monitors [and] vital sign monitors,” she told the media.
“We also . . . need additional neurology equipment . . . . We could go on and on throughout the entire hospital, but suffice it to say that the needs from a clinical perspective are wide and varied,” added Agbowu.
Agbowu said the needs of the hospital “in terms of capital replacement don’t ever diminish” and as it grows and technology changes, there was a need for constant capital replacement and replenishment of the equipment.
“It is not to say that the hospital doesn’t have anything, but it is to say that there is a need for continuous capital replacement and that from time to time we will need to have various bits and pieces replaced,” she said.